Trump touts Fox News report that border wall could pay for itself

President Trump on Tuesday touted a report from Fox News citing the Center for Immigration Studies that claimed his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexican border could “pay for itself” over a decade.

The study, first reported by The New York Post, claims that $18 billion in funding for a border wall system on the United States’s southern border would pay for itself by curbing crime and the flow of undocumented immigrants over the border.

“The wall could pay for itself even if it only modestly reduced illegal crossings and drug smuggling,” Steven Camerota, the center’s research director, told the Post.

{mosads}

“According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the $18 billion wall will pay for itself by curbing the importation of crime, drugs and illegal immigrants who tend to go on the federal dole,” Trump tweeted, quoting the Fox News report.

“California’s sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk. Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP!” he added in a second tweet.

“According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the $18 billion wall will pay for itself by curbing the importation of crime, drugs and illegal immigrants who tend to go on the federal dole…” https://t.co/NdLC6jZwWE

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018

California’s sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk. Thousands of dangerous & violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018

The report comes as Trump heads to California to look at prototypes of his long-talked-about project, which have been constructed near the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego. 

Last April, Camerota testified before Congress that a wall along the Mexican border could potentially save taxpayers $64 billion in reduced crime and welfare costs for undocumented immigrants over the next 10 years.

The Center for Immigration Studies, a right-wing group that advocates for reductions in legal immigration, is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Neither the Fox News report or the New York Post report mentions the center’s designation as a hate group or its political bias.

“Founded in 1985 by John Tanton, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has gone on to become the go-to think tank for the anti-immigrant movement with its reports and staffers often cited by media and anti-immigrant politicians,” the SPLC’s website reads.

“CIS’s much-touted tagline is ‘low immigration, pro-immigrant,’ but the organization has a decades-long history of circulating racist writers, while also associating with white nationalists.”